ASB Awareness Week 2024

We know the impact antisocial behaviour can have on people's lives. As such, we are working closely with our partners to ensure a consistent approach which is focused on the victim.

We are committed to treating victims fairly and with dignity and responding to their situation with empathy.

You can read our full policy here.

This week officers from our communities and housing teams will be out and about: 

Making our tenants feel safer:

To support ASB Awareness Week, our Community Wardens and Housing Officers will be out and about in our communities. Please come and say hello.

This is what we've been up to so far:

Saturday: ASB and health day

People who suffer long term antisocial behaviour can feel a wide range of emotions and physical and mental exhaustion.  They often feel that nobody (police, housing and other agencies are listening to them or taking their concerns seriously,

This is why the council and the police work closely together to try and resolve these concerns. It is important that you contact your Housing Officer and where you feel a crime has been committed then to log with the police on 101. You can also report crime anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers.uk.org

Your Housing Officer will work with you to gather evidence in the form of diary sheets or the anti-social behaviour app where you can upload evidence directly from your phone. Once the evidence has been gathered then they will complete a risk assessment and action plan with you. This should resolve the antisocial behaviour.

If you still feel that If you feel that the council or police has not dealt with your antisocial behaviour satisfactorily, and you have sufficient evidence, and the threshold is met, then, you have the right to request an ASB case review.

If you are suffering then please contact your Housing Officer.

Stuart Pattison, Head of Tenant Relationships reflects on the impact of ASB on people's health

As ASB Awareness week 2024 comes to a close, we recognise todays theme which is ASB & Health day. We know that 43% of residents experiencing ASB say it affects their mental health.

The Housing team take a trauma informed approach to tackling ASB. We assess the risk of harm and will always offer referrals to Victim Support and signpost to support agencies whilst ASB is investigated.

Thursday 21 November: Community Heroes Day

Saying 'thank you'

Myself and PCSO Hazel Pearson went to the keepers to present Chris and the team with a tablet to recognise them as out local hero’s. The team offer such a variety of different support for people who in difficult times would normally not reach out to seek support. Having this centre really helps the community in many ways, and we believe it helps to reduce ASB in the area by offering daily support and sometimes evening support.

Chris was thrilled to have the tablet kindly donated by NEC but most importantly to have the recognition for the keepers which offers so much in the community. He was a bit overwhelmed by todays theme of local Heros. 😊

Wednesday: Let's talk ASB

Our Strategic Head of Housing, Andy Kefford, shares his thoughts on ASB...

ASB awareness week is an important week in the calendar, designed to raise awareness of the impact that ASB has on individuals and our communities. The awareness campaign is just one week in the year, however, ASB can and does happen at any time in the year. Our work is not done at the end of this week.

The housing team work extremely hard to support victims of ASB throughout the year. I am incredibly proud of the dedication the team show to proactively prevent antisocial behaviour from happening and where it does, to positively resolving the conflict. 

So, as we reach the halfway mark of this year’s ASB awareness campaign, I’d like to encourage everyone to learn more about antisocial behaviour and how this effects individuals, so that we can jointly raise awareness of the issue and work together to reduce it from happening so that our residents can live in safe neighbourhoods. I’d also like to thank my teams and the partners we work with for their continued resilience and efforts in this important area and for contributing to improving the quality of life for our community.

Ian Allan is a tenant who sits on the Social Housing Quality Panel and the Ombudsman Panel

ASB is a really important issue in Social Housing and you have to remember that for the Council perhaps more so than Housing Associations there's a sense of the Council being the Landlord of Last Resort. Handling that is clearly something SDC are able and competent to do. Obviously I meet tenants all the time who are maybe less happy with difficult ongoing situations but they have support which private owners do not feel so much. It comes up in almost every meeting and you can conclude that personal behaviour standards are less repressed than formerly and the Police are possibly focused towards the more modern concerns such as out and out Racism or anti LGBTQ and Homophobia.

The old fashioned idea of entitlement to live in peace sometimes becomes more to do with communal standards of keeping pets under control or neglect of gardens or dirty and smelly houses. Equally some people do have certain special needs which aren't at a level to be a diagnosed condition but are recognisable as needing care and kindness which can be in short supply. So I am hearing people frustrated by modern life when the lads rev up their cars at all hours or fighting and then argument about whether Rewilding is an excuse for the Council to cut back on maintenance all presented as ASB.

Our Tenant Engagement Officer, Dave Forde, has been finding out more about ASB in Stonehouse...

Today PCSO Jordan Perry and Matt Smith from our Neighbourhood Warden team and myself carried out a walkabout around Stonehouse earlier this week - we had the weather for it, bright and sunny!

I found out a lot of local knowledge from the pair around flytipping hotspots and the work going on to tackle it.  They also carried out spot checks on vehicles that looked abandoned and we have catalogues photos of untidy gardens which will now be addressed.

If you missed us today and would like to speak to us about any ASB, please email housing.management@stroud.gov.uk. All information will be treated with the strictest of confidence.

Our Head of Assets and Investment in Housing, Tara Skidmore, has been reflecting on what ASB means for her team...

‘The ASB Awareness campaign is designed to come together and take a stand against Anti social behaviour and promote support available to those it effects. We do this through collaboration and partnership work which supports that jointly we put victims at the heart of ASB awareness and complaint cases and to make sure our tenants feel supported and listened to.  

Everyone has a right to feel safe where they live and i fully support my colleagues in the hard work they do to ensure that happens’  

Tuesday: Victims Day

How we have helped

From April 2023 to March 2024, our tenants reported 282 cases of antisocial behaviour. 170 of these cases were reported on our ASB app and our tenants were able to upload directly to their housing officer.

• 2141 diary sheets
• 1157 noise recordings
• 592 videos
• 417 pictures

The breakdown of the types of antisocial behaviour was:

Because you were told your Housing Officer, we were able to do: 

Intro tenancies

Court action 

When our tenants filled in their Annual Satisfaction Survey, they said that 64.9% were satisfied with our approach to tackling antisocial behaviour. 

There is so much more we would like to do - if you are a Stroud District Council tenant and would like to help us on our journey then please contact Resident Involvement Team.

"As Principal Resident Engagement Officer, I’m committed to making sure our residents have a real say when it comes to dealing with antisocial behaviour. By working together and listening to their concerns, we can tackle issues more effectively and build stronger, safer communities. Our goal is to ensure that residents feel heard and that their input helps shape the solutions that improve life for everyone.
We’ve got plenty of ways for residents to get involved, whether it's through meetings, events, or giving feedback. If you’d like to help shape the services and decisions that affect your community, we’d love to hear from you! Just reach out to the Resident Engagement Team to find out how you can get involved”
Ben Roberts, Stroud District Council's Principal Resident Engagement Officer in Tenant Services

Fraud

Fraud is not a victimless crime. We have teamed up with our partners at Cotswold District Council to use the Tenancy Fraud Forum and since January 2024 we have had 10 referrals which has resulted in:

• 2 Evictions
• 1 Property handed back to us
• 2 Notices of seeking possession
• 3 interviews conducted under caution

You can report tenancy fraud here.

Monday: Partnership Day

Working with Solace

We work with our key partners to solve antisocial behaviour on our estates. Stroud District Council is the latest local authority to join the specialist antisocial behaviour initiative (ASB) Solace. This means our tenants can now benefit from a joined-up approach to tackling antisocial behaviour (ASB) as brings together a team of dedicated council case workers, police officers and PCSOs who work in partnership with communities to highlight and resolve complaints of high and medium level ASB as well as repeat incidents. Working with Solace enables us to have access to their expertise in solving difficult and challenging behaviour.

We have been working in partnership with Stroud District Council to resolve persistent cases of antisocial behaviour with great success. We have been able to implement a consistent county-wide approach in resolving complex cases utilising the experience of both our Stroud District Council caseworker and our dedicated police staff. The Solace team use specific civil legislation to reduce ASB on both persistent offenders and properties. Whilst we make every effort to resolve repeat ASB using less formal methods we will not hesitate to escalate our response in order to protect victims.
Solace have completed for Stroud Council: 17 injunctions and 5 closure orders. There are a further 5 injunctions pending and 1 closure order. 
Sam Higson, Solace 

Antisocial behaviour case review

We also work closely with the Office of Police and Crime Commissioner and Gloucestershire Constabulary where there has been persistent anti-social behaviour. In partnership, we hold an ASB Case Review which aims to solve the issue of persistent ASB together.

This year we have attended four case reviews involving our tenants with positive outcomes for all tenants. Where the criteria for a case review has not been met Tenant Services has organised a professionals meeting. We have held three of these this year including one for hate crime.

If tenants are experiencing persistent ASB and feel they aren’t being listened to, I would encourage them to consider an antisocial behaviour case review. 
They can find out more information about how an ASB case review works through this video or on our website.
Diane Blandford, Office of the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner

New technology

The Tenant Services team at Stroud District Council has invested in new ASB reporting module. This means that it will be quicker and more efficient to track cases and to be able to share statistics with partners, leading to better partnership working and more innovative solutions to complex problems, as well reducing costs to the public purse.

The team is working with Case Management Solutions Group to develop and enhance the ASB app which tenants have said they find easy to use to report ASB to the council 24 hours a days.

“Working with Stroud District Council has been an absolute pleasure from day one. SDC have really embraced the ASB App and use it exactly the way intended. I know personally from speaking with a number of SDC residents over the last few years, that they get really positive use out of the service, allowing cases to be concluded quickly and without the fuss. Charlie Mosse who heads up the ASB Team at SDC often attends our ASB App user groups and has been a driving force in getting the ASB App functionality to where it is today. We’re looking forward to continuing this great working relationship over the coming years!”
Ben Hunt, CMSG